The Spaniard was loaned to Napoli in the summer as manager Brendan Rodgers brought Belgian stopper Simon Mignolet to the club from Sunderland.

The arrangement may be a temporary one, but Reina, who is back working under former Reds boss Rafa Benitez in Italy, does not expect to return to Anfield.

"At the moment it's difficult to think about being a Liverpool player next year," Reina is quoted as saying in the Daily Mail. "They have a young goalkeeper in Simon Mignolet and the manager prefers him to me.

"That's the reason why I'm here and he will be at the club next year as well. There's no reason to think I'll be a Liverpool player from now on but we'll see where the future takes us.

"It's been a good move so far and I don't regret what happened. I would have preferred to say goodbye in a different way."

Reina admits he had not been expecting to move in the summer.

"It did come as a surprise," added Reina. "It was the club [Liverpool] who made the move. I was on my holidays and nobody told me anything.

"Suddenly Napoli called and said they were agreeing terms with Liverpool and Liverpool just rang me two days later and said the same. They probably had their own reasons."

Readers' Comments

I

t's wrong to be making a joke out of Bender's name at the expense of gay people. It's the kind of childish, uncivilised thing that Football365 would deride and ridicule if it was another media outlet saying. Why is there a need for jokes like this? Does it make your writers feel like men? F365 might suggest that I 'lighten up', but it is genuinely traumatic for people who have been oppressed all their lives to be the butt of jokes, and to be told...

ou can't blame De Gea for wanting to leave, he has enough to do in front of goal as it is as well as taking on the role of Man Utd's version of Derek Acorah in trying to contact and organise a defence that isn't there.